Wireless RF receivers are used in a wide variety of applications such as smart metering, remote control, home security and alarm, telemetry, garage and gate openers, remote keyless entry, and the like. As used herein, a “radio frequency” signal means an electrical signal conveying useful information and having a frequency from about 3 kilohertz (kHz) to thousands of gigahertz (GHz), regardless of the medium through which such signal is conveyed. Thus an RF signal may be transmitted through air, free space, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, etc.
One common type of RF receiver is a frequency-shift keying (FSK) receiver that is compatible with the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands in the 119 to 1050 megahertz (MHz) range. ISM radio bands are portions of the radio spectrum reserved internationally for the use of RF energy for industrial, scientific and medical purposes other than communication. One signaling system that uses FSK is the Meter-Bus (MBUS) standard, no. EN 13757-4. The draft MBUS-2013 standard defines a mode known as mode N that encodes data using four-level Gaussian frequency shift keying (4GFSK). In addition, the draft MBUS-2013 provides a large, ±30% frequency tolerance. The use of four levels with a wide frequency tolerance makes symbol determination difficult.
In the following description, the use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items. Unless otherwise noted, the word “coupled” and its associated verb forms include both direct connection and indirect electrical connection by means known in the art, and unless otherwise noted any description of direct connection implies alternate embodiments using suitable forms of indirect electrical connection as well.